| Summary: | Sepsis is a condition resulting from the body's response to severe infection and is a growing health concern in Canada.1 In Canada, more than 30,000 are hospitalized due to sepsis and related complications. Moreover, sepsis has a mortality rate of 30% and kills more than 9,000 people each year.2 Despite the significant risk of morbidity and mortality, adequate initial therapy is initiated in septic patients in fewer than 58% of cases.2 Sepsis represents a significant burden on health system resources; including an average of nine additional days in hospital compared to patients without sepsis.3 Moreover, literature suggests that simple interventions administered early in an emergency department visit can significantly impact sepsis mortality rates.4 Early diagnosis and effective treatment of sepsis is an important priority for policy especially in rural and remote settings wherein limitations to access care, lack of resources and low physician to population ratio are significant barriers.1. A standardized set of guidelines for management and detection of sepsis in adults would be a significant progression in decreasing the burden of sepsis on population health.4 This Rapid Response report aims to review the guidelines or evidence-based recommendations for diagnostic technologies or procedures to address the recognition and detection of sepsis in adults with suspected sepsis. These guidelines associated with the use of tests and processes used for sepsis diagnosis and assessment may help inform the development of practice guidelines and practice tools in remote and rural settings
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